That one time I turned around and saw Picabo Street...

Picabo surprised us in class today and told us a lot of great stories off the bat. Obviously shooting will be easy since she is so charismatic and such a natural storyteller. She was very vivid in detail to the point that I completely felt like I was watching the story unfold in a movie sequence. Ironically that will be the intro to our hybrid documentary. Picabo went to the studio with all of us and shot the intro piece. Ben and Luke were also there helping. She then took photos with all of us and signed our books and magazines of her. She remembered all of our names and even waved to me on the street after class. She is everyone's newfound hero. 

Guest Speaker: Brian Strassman

Screenwriting professor at DSU

• Screenwriting is the true architecture of the whole business. Our voice is what gets us past the readers to the agents.
• 4 page double spaced treatment.
• Everyone has flops.
• Know your ending, know where you are going- the exact moments.
• The firm, great film to watch for structure.
• Midpoint- change of events.
• Plot point- most Hollywood/American films. 
• Ex. Dan in Real Life.
• Have your film take a hard left or right so people are left saying, "Whoa, what now?'
• Hardest to write in a screenplay.
• Treatment is just about your story, not necessarily the details of the characters.
• Know your subject.
• Picabo advice: Danger, what drives you?
• Velocity Girl.

Quick Rundown of Our Research Trip

Going up to Park City was amazing. So much fun and bonding happened among us. We took two vans and were tightly packed in. We stayed in a fancy resort a little outside of Park City. We got to take a tour of the studios which are in the construction stages, where we were able to wear hardhats and walk around the future set areas. It was freezing, but really cool to learn more about the actual production process and what goes into building a studio. 

We spent hours on end at Picabo's parents' home going through boxes upon boxes of newspaper clippings, photos, photo albums, awards, certificates, medals, olympic clothing items including racing gear, collecting VHS tapes for future watching, cereal boxes, you name it! 

Allie, Phil, Morgan and I were the main people to focus on newspaper clippings and photos. After the hunt, Corby and I boxed up and organized everything by logging it into an Excel spreadsheet. I also was able to go with a group including Cade, Aaron, Jon, Keshara, etc. to the ski resort area of Park City to look for a museum, which ended up being too pricey and not what we were really needing. However, Keshara and I talked with the ladies at the front desk whom have lived in Park City for a long time and heard many of the legends of Picabo and met her on occasion. They even mentioned the girls' ski team and how they could be a good place to pull potential actresses from.